Three
applications for pickets – three bans. This is how one can briefly describe the
history of the recent communication of Vitsebsk resident Viktar Zharkou with the
district administrations. Now Viktar Zharkou has filed complaints with the
courts of all the three districts of Vitsebsk against officials who deprived
him of the opportunity to inform people about the violation of his rights by
the police.

Chances that
the courts will meet the said complaints are scanty. In the past few years,
local judges have reviewed many similar complaints filed by pro-democratic
activists, and have never acknowledged that banning this or that event by the
authorities is the violation of someone’s rights.

The right
to peaceful assembly and the right to disseminate information and free
expression of ideas are guaranteed by the Constitution and international
obligations assumed by the Republic of Belarus. However, Vitsebsk city
executive committee invented a way to spare the citizens of these rights. In
2009, the city authorities adopted decision No. 881, according to which in
order to obtain permission to stage a street event carried out without the
involvement of the authorities the organizers must first negotiate an agreement
on its service with doctors, police and public utilities.

Since its entry
into force, not a single person has managed to sign all the necessary contracts.
Failure to comply with this decision is the traditional reason for the prohibition
of public events in Vitsebsk. It was for the same reason that the picket
scheduled by Viktar Zharkou was banned. It will be a miracle if he can convince
the judge that the decision of the local authorities, which de facto makes it
impossible to take advantage of one’s rights, cannot overturn the Constitution
and the generally recognized principles of international law.